April 4, 2014 – 18 Days until April 22…
In the United States alone, 18 billion disposable diapers are thrown out every year
Environmental Impact
- 200,000 trees are lost each year to the manufacturing of disposable diapers
- It takes 3.4 billion gallons of fuel oil every year to make disposable diapers
- Disposable diapers use 20 times more raw materials, two times more water and three times more energy to make than cloth diapers
The Benefits of Cloth Diapers
Julia Roberts, Matt Damon and Jessica Alba are among the many celebrities reported to use cloth diapers on their children. The benefits of cloth diapers range from better health for your baby to economic and as previously noted,environmental. Studies show that children using cloth diapers will experience less diaper rash, and reduce their chances of getting asthma. As opposed to the nearly $2,500 average cost of disposable diapers per child, cloth diapers can cost less than $500, saving your family as much as $2,000 a child. A number of cloth diaper brands exist including Smartipants, Happy Heinys and Gro Via and Green Mountain Diapers’ website shows you how to use prefold diapers in a variety of easy ways.
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Photo credits:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AA_Fathers_Love_(10447279325).jpg
Photo by Lies Thru a Lens (A Father’s Love Uploaded by tm) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AStack_of_cloth_diapers.jpg
Photo by MissMessie (mini stack) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons